


Three Times The Charm

by starsaligns



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Romance, three times the charm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-23
Updated: 2015-04-23
Packaged: 2018-03-25 10:52:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3807634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starsaligns/pseuds/starsaligns
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three times Cisco Ramon speaks about his relationship with Laurel Lance to his friends and family after getting caught together in less than platonic circumstances.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Three Times The Charm

**Author's Note:**

> asdfas I DON’T KNOW WHERE I WENT WITH THIS, but please enjoy. This hasn’t been beta’d.

The first time after he meets Laurel Lance, he doesn’t know what to make of it. It’s something otherworldly, being able to meet one of his heroes, and have it be so unexpectedly wonderful. When she hands him over the sonic device, it vibrates in his hand and an idea enters his mind. He tells her that he’ll take care of it, of course because he always does, and that’d it’d be an easy work up. He has to go out with Joe and her father first, but that can’t take all but three hours out of his day, right?

“Thank you, Cisco. I don’t know how to repay you”, she tells him before giving him another wide smile, a smile that he deems so unearthly bright and shining that he can’t help but smile at her in return and nods his reply. He just pockets the device and follows her out of the interrogation room.

When he stumbles into Palmer Technologies that night after a quick shower and leaving Joe to rest and to borrow lab space and supplies, he’s surprised to see her already there dressed as the Black Canary. He can’t resist the excitement and bypasses his friend Ray in order to saddle up beside her. “Oh, oh”, he says to her, overlooking her costume with complete adoration. “Kevlar lined jacket, lightweight leather boots–oh and the buckles. So badass, right”, he asks Ray and the guy just shrugs him off and tells him that anything he wants or needs he can have. “He just broke up with Felicity”, Laurel tells him in a whisper and he nods, his voice dropping to a whisper. “Man, that sucks.”

It’s quiet for a few more minutes before he brings out his cell phone. “Can I at least get a picture”, he lets out, holding out his hands. And she pauses hesitantly for a moment before a soft smile graces her lips. “Sure”, she tells him and he lets out a triumphant yes; but she holds up one finger and he can feel a but coming. There’s always a but coming.

Laurel laughs and asks him how many vigilantes or metahumans has he asked for a picture with that gives him a stipulation and all he answers her is with a look and says a lot.

“Do they let you take the picture”, she asks him tentatively, voice calm for a moment and she leans back against one of the work tables in the makeshift lair they have. “Not really”, he shrugs his shoulders defeated and she calls Ray over. 

“Hand him your cell phone, Cisco. Just one picture and that’s payment for the device.”

His signature grin widens and he eagerly does as he’s told. “This is going to be awesome”, he lets out and puts his arm around her back, settling it on her hip and she leans against him with her arm on his shoulder in an easy stance. “But, you’re going to have to blow it up so I can frame it too”, he says quickly and that’s how Laurel’s face becomes surprised, stoic, and amused in the picture all at once. She happily hands him her number and he programs it in, sending her the picture immediately right after.

They chat, hang around, and laugh until she’s called out to stop a robbery and Ray hangs back with him to talk her through the systems while he works on his task.

They part ways only after three am through the comms and Cisco realizes that he can finish with The Canary Cry in the morning. The name actually comes easy to him and another idea strikes him while it’s hot. He gets to his hotel room and falls asleep, sure, but wakes up early the next morning to finish it before they head out to the train station.

He’s packing up his things when she comes up to him, a manilla folder in her hands and a wide smile on her lips. “So where are we on our mutual project”, she asks of him, trying to be as discreet as she possibly could because of prying ears and he does the same, looking around before opening the box within a box. “I think this would do the trick”, he tells her as he does so and the expression on her face is enough for him to be barreled down in excitement.

He’s smug, yes, when he tells her what he did to the sonic device and even goes as far as to aptly name it for her. Cisco braces himself, sure, waiting for the criticism that he gets from Barry or Caitlin when he names the metahumans, but it doesn’t come. Instead, there’s an even wider smile and a confirmation. 

Replaced with his worry is a soft smile, a smile that’s exploratory and discovering and he can see it in her eyes that she’s doing the same before she pockets the choker into her bag. “And as promised”, she says as she hands him over the manilla folder. “You show this to anyone, I’ll kill you.”

He pauses for a moment before a teasing tone comes out of his lips. “Is that an expression?”

She just answers him with a smirk, throws her bag onto her arm, and says a small nope with a hint of flirtation to her tone of voice that has him thoroughly surprised. He tells himself it’s friendly, sure, but he looks down at the picture with a happy grin and then packs it up.

And Joe immediately picks up on it on their train ride home.

“So I saw you with the Captain’s daughter earlier”, he prods and Cisco scoffs. Immediately his mind goes to the picture, wondering if Joe’s seen it and is asking questions about Laurel’s identity, and he thinks he’s betrayed that sort of sacred identity trust.

He remembers the last time he’s done it and instantly feels regretful.

“What”, Joe asks of him and Cisco just shrugs, trying to play it off because it’s really not his secret to tell. “If she rejected you, Cisco, it’s her loss.”

And he blinks, brown eyes looking into brown for curiosity and he wonders if they’re thinking the same thing. Did Joe really think that he and Laurel–”Oh”, Cisco says then, trying to avoid the subject as best as he could. He scoffs, sure, but he’s already done that before and Joe’s eyebrow raise in doubt comes up. “Laurel and I–”

“–oh so it’s Laurel”, Joe interjects and Cisco slams his mouth shut.

“Starling City ADA Laurel Lance and I are just friends, Joe”, he further explains, which isn’t far from the truth. “We found out we have some mutual friends in common, that’s it.” A pause fell between them for a minute, but Joe’s still staring at him and it’s making him super uneasy. “You of all people should respect a secret keeper.”

And Joe laughs, but leans back and closes his eyes for the train ride; but Cisco can’t help but think that the laugh is him saying that he knows something. It can’t be true, but he does lean back with his phone in his hands, ready to put on earbuds to listen to the music that’s on it, but a text right at that moment distracts him.

It’s Laurel’s name that pops up. The message just says “Remember. I’m trusting you.”

He smiles and texts back “No telling, promise.”

\-----------

The second time someone stops him to talk about his friendship with Laurel Lance, it’s way too soon.  
The night’s been something like a dream for Cisco. The Flash, Arrow, and Firestorm together trying to outrun the Reverse Flash. Ready, Aim, and Fire all together at the same time and he had to stop himself from falling over out of exhaustion and and choking on his lollipop from over excitement. Of course there was the Black Canary and Arsenal there to help them out too and in the end they were able to run Eobard Thawne into another time, sure.

But at what cost?

The now compromised STAR Labs is done as a secret base, but he can’t do much to think about the toys and electronics he’s left there because they’re all at Joe and Barry’s trying to heal. The ones who stayed behind--Caitlin, Felicity, Thea, Joe, Eddie, including himself--are tending to the wounded.

“We gotta stop meeting like this”, he says as he walks over to Laurel with a soft cloth to wipe off the dried blood on her forehead. It’s only mumbled with the lollipop in his mouth and she lets out a laugh at his words. “What”, she tells him. “And miss our weekly Sunday Skype sessions while watching Game of Thrones? I don’t think so.” He pauses only at her affirmation, but continues on to tend to most of her stuff. They fall into a relative ease, she telling him about how awesome the Canary Cry has been and he propositioning her new ideas to make it better.

It’s like, they might not have won the battle, but they certainly won the moral victory when Barry comes over to thank her for her help and Cisco beams just as proudly as she had at him. “See”, he tells her. “You’re a hero, Dinah Laurel Lance.”

“And you’re a good person, Francisco Ramon.”

Immediately, he remembers to one of their Skype sessions from before when he tells her that his full name is Francisco. He doesn’t comment on it, but she’s looking at him with green eyes and a soft stare while he moves the wet cloth to just her neck. It’s slow, sure, but brown eyes stayed locked on green while it happens.

Their eye contact is only broken when Caitlin clears her throat behind him and tells him to move out of the way so she can get to work. Ronnie’s just looking at him with amusement.

“Wait”, Laurel says before holding out a hand to stop Cisco, tugging on his shirt to pull him closer to her. She doesn’t do much but steal the lollipop from his lips and puts it right in her mouth. “Okay”, she says, muffled by the treat. “You can go now.”

He’s paralyzed, trying to will his body to move, but he can’t because a gorgeous woman who, yes he’ll admit he has a crush on, just stole candy from him right out of his mouth. Who does that?

He doesn’t know whether to be turned on or offended that Laurel did that. He settles with it being okay to be both.

“Come on”, Ronnie says as he pulls Cisco away from the sight when Caitlin shoos them both out so she can get to a wound on Laurel and sits him down. There’s a smirk on his old friend and Cisco could see the wheels turning in his head. “No”, he says firmly, holding out both hands to stop him before he goes any further.

Sure, he’s got a crush on Laurel, but he’s pretty sure it’s one-sided anyway. “What? I was just going to say you guys are good”, Ronnie tells him and Cisco shakes his head. “We’re friends, bro”, he confesses. “Seriously, look at her. She’s gorgeous, leggy, and only dates billionaires--well, her track record, sure. I’m a nobody who works at a now defunct--again--laboratory. Hell, she dates guys that pay me to make this. I’m pretty sure I’m the last person she’ll go for.”

He lets it all out in one breath, sure, but his eyes are to the other room where Laurel lets out a painful yell at the sutures. It takes all of him to not go back in there, sure, because she confessed to him one night that she’s a recovering addict and he wants to make sure she’s okay. He hears a loud Cisco calling for him and he’s already there by Laurel’s side because he’d be damned if she’s hurting without him.

And Ronnie’s shaking his head because he knows Cisco’s already in deep with the girl; but he’s too blind to clearly see that Laurel’s all in too. Time will figure them both out eventually.

\--------------

The third time someone questions Cisco about his and Laurel’s relationship, it’s not the person he expects.

Sure, Oliver Queen would be one scary person to deal with--he’s the Arrow or whatever he wants to be called nowadays for goodness sake--but it’s his wife that’s the scariest person of all. Felicity Smoak (Queen? Who knows if she kept his last name or not, they eloped without him and he’s pissed) is ranting, waving her arms about in Laurel’s apartment and wondering where the hell is her only female best friend that she’s not related to.

She claims that Laurel will be impartial to her and Oliver’s argument and Cisco’s just cringing at the fact that this is happening when he’s visiting his friend (friend that he wants to be something more with) for the weekend and ruining their Harry Potter marathon.

Felicity pauses for a moment and her eyebrows furrow before she turns to him. “Wait”, she starts for a moment. “Why are you here? In Laurel’s apartment? Without Laurel?” Oliver sighs. “Thank you for stopping so we can all get the answer to the question I’ve been asking since we got here.”

Cisco opens his mouth to speak, but Felicity just tells Oliver to zip it and Cisco does the same. Oliver’s looking at his wife in amusement, but crosses his arms and sits down on the chair underneath him. “Laurel and I”, Cisco starts out, trying to be calm about this whole thing so that Oliver and Felicity would be at ease. “We were--”

“--we were about to get on with our date. What are you guys doing here”, Laurel comes in to the apartment now, hands full of groceries and Cisco immediately stands up to help her towards the kitchen.

It’s been commonplace that if she buys the groceries, he’ll cook anything she wants, and judging from what she’s bought, they’re having milanesa--his mother’s milanesa, he recognizes from the time Laurel visited him in Central City and was invited to his parents house because Dante wanted to meet the girl who stole his little brother’s heart.

Damn Ronnie Raymond for that.

At least the visit had been nice and Laurel stayed by his side the whole time and didn’t even bat an eyelash when Dante tried flirting with her. Score for him.

But as he listened to Laurel talk to Felicity and Oliver right beside him, he realized that she said date and drops the knife and cutting board onto the floor. Oliver, with his quick reflexes, got the board while Laurel got the knife--but caught the blade instead of the handle.

“Shit”, she says and he’s immediately brought back to the world by her voice. “I’m so sorry”, Cisco speaks and makes quick movements to grab the first aid kit. That’s only when he notices Oliver whisper something into Felicity’s ear and she smiles while excusing the both of them out. Newlyweds, he muses to himself, but Laurel lets out a scoff as she sits down at her kitchen table.

“Tell me about it”, she says with a wrinkle of her nose and he grins wide while cleaning her cut. “You’ve been spending way too much time with me”, he tells her quietly and she just looks up at him, soft smile to return his own. “Maybe not enough.”

The air is thick, sure, but maybe that’s the confirmation that he’s been looking for since he’s met Laurel Lance.

Laurel Lance who’s turned his whole life upside down with just one cry for help and he thanks her all the more for it. “Cisco”, she whispers out to him to get his attention, noting that he’s been off in his own world and calls him back every single time; but he shakes his head at her slowly. “Just thinking”, he tells her in his own little way that it wasn’t a vision he had.

And just like that, as if they were two magnets moving together, he presses his lips to hers at the same time she leans up to him. The kiss they share is small, intimate, but it’s big on exploration, feelings, and dare he say it, the completion to a hole he’s never known that he’s been missing.

Tentatively, he pulls away and Laurel still has that smile on her face, the smile that’s always intoxicated him and he scrunches his nose at her in return. “So. This is a date, huh”, he tells her, teasing her much like the first time he’s met her and she shakes her head with a laugh.

“Shut up and kiss me, Cisco.”

And he does, without complaint, over and over again.


End file.
